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Champions League preview: Real Madrid in search of three straight final

The defending champions Real Madrid will tonight take on Bayern Munich in the second leg of one of the semi-final matches of this year’s Champions…

The defending champions Real Madrid will tonight take on Bayern Munich in the second leg of one of the semi-final matches of this year’s Champions League.

Madrid go into tonight’s battle with a 2-1 advantage.

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane does not think his future depends on winning the Champions League.

Madrid are trying to win it for the third consecutive season.

Real are 15 points behind new champions Barcelona in La Liga.

When Zidane was asked if he had to win the tournament to keep his job, he said: "It’s independent of that."

The France legend, whose side have not been knocked out of Europe once during his two-and-a-half years in charge, said "Today I’m the coach and I want to continue at this club.

"But it’s not important. What matters to everyone is thinking about this game and that’s it."

He added his side will look to attack from the start, despite the fact a draw – or even 1-0 defeat – would take them through.

"The key for us is think about winning the game and to go on to the pitch wanting to do that," Zidane said. "We need to go out to score quickly and that’s what we’ll try to do."

Bayern interim boss Jupp Heynckes, who is being replaced by Niko Kovac at the end of the season, won the Champions League at the end of his previous season in charge – 2012-13 – before Pep Guardiola took over.

He says his side will look to remedy their errors from the first leg.

"We need to minimise our mistakes and we want to change a few things from the first leg," he said.

"Changing nothing would be an error. I saw positive things but there are things to be fixed. I’ll be trying to rectify mistakes; we’ll try to attack. We conceded goals because of some mistakes – it had nothing to do with the organisation or style of play."

TEAM NEWS

Bayern are without winger Arjen Robben for the trip to the Bernabeu after he suffered a leg injury eight minutes into the first leg.

Left-back David Alaba (thigh) and midfielder Javi Martinez (head) are both expected to return from injury.

Real Madrid right-back Dani Carvajal is likely to miss out with a hamstring problem, but Isco trained on Monday despite a shoulder injury.

Zidane was coy on who would play in Carvajal’s place, with centre-back Nacho and winger Lucas Vazquez the most likely candidates.


MATCH FACTS

 

* No team has overturned a 2-1 home first-leg defeat in the Champions League, in seven previous such occurrences.

* Bayern and Real will meet for the 26th time in European competition, more than any other fixture. Real have won 12 of these encounters to Bayern’s 11 victories (two draws).

* Bayern have lost their past six games against Real (all in the knockout stages of the Champions League), their longest run of defeats against one opponent in European competition.

* Cristiano Ronaldo has scored nine goals against Bayern Munich in the Champions League – the only player to have netted more goals against a single opponent in the competition is Ronaldo himself, scoring 10 against Juventus.

* Real Madrid have scored in each of their past 41 Champions League games at the Bernabeu, last failing to find the net in April 2011 against Barcelona (2-0).

* Under Zinedine Zidane, Real Madrid have never been knocked out of the Champions League, progressing in all eight of their two-legged ties as well as winning the two finals they’ve appeared in. They’ve also won seven of their eight knockout games at home (L1).

* Bayern Munich are on a run of two Champions League games without a win (D1 L1). They have not gone three matches in a row without a victory in the competition since 2009 (September-November).

* They have failed to keep a clean sheet in their past 13 Champions League away games, their joint-longest such run in the competition (equalling the record set between April 1999 and December 2000).

* No player has been involved in more goals for Bayern in the Champions League this season than Joshua Kimmich (six – three goals and three assists).

* Robert Lewandowski has failed to score in his past four Champions League games with Bayern Munich, his longest drought with the club. He has never failed to find the net in five consecutive outings in the competition.

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